Salt of the Earth
Bring out the controversy gloves kids, it’s time to knuckle down to a core issue in the local food movement: does “local” truly represent “sustainable”?
What if the food in question is not actually food, not actually grown, but instead, mined? Yes, I’m talking about that core dietary mineral: salt.
To my utter surprise, I can actually get local salt. I had no idea. As a little kid, I thought it came from those funny cone shaped “silos” in public works yards. (I also thought that pepper was stored in them, since they obviously went together on the table.) As an adult, I realized it was mined and shipped from somewhere, and it annoys me that my scientific brain never thought to ask “where?” until now. I assumed there were salt mines in far away remote places, like the NWT, or Angola, or India. I had no idea that the far away remote salt on my table came from Goderich, Ontario.
Goderich! I’ve driven there! Quiet, unassuming, quaint Goderich is home to one of the world’s largest salt mines, extending for kilometres under Lake Huron. So, bright side: I can get local salt. In fact, two of the most commonly recognized brands of salt in your run-of-the-mill grocery supermarket are Sifto and Windsor, and guess where the second one comes from. (Hint: it comes from Windsor.)
Down side: is a salt mine sustainable? My knee-jerk inner-hippie response is “MINING =BAD”, although I confess to knowing extraordinarily little about the mining and refining processes of salt. The little geological information I have gleaned from minutes of reading Wikipedia is that the Goderich mine is the result of a millions-of-years-old ocean that used to be where we are now. They also have some amazing pictures of vast salt caverns. http://davechidley.ca/corporate/
It would seem that my other, non-local choice would be sea salt, something I am distinctly uncomfortable with, having studied water pollution. I suppose were the ocean less polluted and hard done by, and nearer to Guelph, my choice would be clear, but in the mean time I am at least comforted that my neighbours in Goderich will benefit (at least a little) from my dietary expeditions this summer.
Gillian Maurice
Posted by Mary Cross on February 19, 2012 | Permalink
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